chemistry

Chemistry graduate students from the Dunkle, Thompson, Pierce and Frantom labs presented posters at the 2026 Southeast Enzymes Conference in Atlanta. Out of 89 poster presentations, UA students earned two of the top three awards in the poster competition. Fred Motari, a researcher in the Frantom group, received second place for his work on iron-sulfur cluster assembly in Gram-positive bacter…

Scientific Reports, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-50040-0 Influence of acid structure and acidity strength on thermochemical, in-situ nitrogen generation

Nature Communications, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72920-9 Ru-catalyzed asymmetric ring-closing metathesis (ARCM) reactions are less reported and restricted to the synthesis of tertiary stereocenters. Herein, the authors report ARCM to produce chiral heterocyclic compounds with quaternary stereocenters, by synthesizing stereogenic-at-Ru catalysts via controllable C–H act…

Scientific Reports, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-47154-w Novel green synthesis of polyfunctionally substituted phthalazines promoted by visible light, DFT studies and molecular docking with antimicrobial and antibiofilm potency

Curiosity just found molecules on Mars tied to the chemistry of life, hinting at a more habitable past. NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered a wide variety of organic molecules on Mars, including compounds often viewed as essential ingredients for the origin of life on Earth. These results come from a chemical experiment carried out on [...]

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02854-1 Laboratory astrochemistry demonstrates that SiC2 is the key molecular precursor in the formation of silicon carbide grains in evolved stars and that hydrogen is an essential ingredient in the process.

Earning a Maximizing Investigators’ Research (MIRA) Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is among the most competitive distinctions a biomedical researcher can achieve. Two faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) have just joined those prestigious ranks. Angela Oliverio, assistant professor of biology, and Shahar Sukenik, assistant professor of chemistry, ... The p…

Peptide lipidation is widely employed to enhance the apparent biological performance of peptide-based systems by improving stability, membrane association, and systemic persistence. However, increased potency is often interpreted uncritically as evidence of improved molecular design. This Perspective highlights that lipidation can reshape peptide behaviour by partially shifting functional control…

Senior member Katie Sun participated in the University of Pennsylvania’s 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition and won 2nd place! Penn 3MT is a university-wide competition designed to showcase graduate students’ research and communications skills in a three-minute talk to a general audience. Katie’s thesis centers around the adsorption of nanoparticles to polymer brushes, which she …

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41557-026-02125-6 Promiscuous interactions underpin natural protein evolution, but ways to harness such promiscuity to design new functions remain underexplored. Now it is shown that mapping this promiscuity with geometric precision in a de novo protein can guide its redesign into a fluorophore binder and an efficient enzyme approachin…

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41557-026-02115-8 The properties of metal–organic framework glasses can be modulated by additives, but understanding how they modify the glass network is challenging. Now, alkali-modifier sites in MOF glasses have been identified, and the impact of both modifier content and identity on the processing temperatures and hierarchical poros…

npj Science of Food, Published online: 25 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41538-026-00863-y Integrated multi-omics maps how processed black ginseng modulates gut homeostasis through rare ginsenosides

npj Science of Food, Published online: 27 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41538-026-00864-x Antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activity of Epigallocatechin gallate against Vibrio parahaemolyticus

npj Science of Food, Published online: 02 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41538-026-00869-6 Differential oxidation of surimi actomyosin by malondialdehyde and heme: spectroscopy and molecular simulation

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-71517-6 Plasmonic nanoparticles show promise for photocatalysis, yet the dynamics of charge transfer remain poorly understood. Here, the authors demonstrate the light-driven growth of a CdS shell on Au nanocubes, correlating shell thickness with charge transfer efficiency at the single-particle level.

Nature Communications, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72606-2 The oxidation of methane (CH4) into value-added chemicals under mild conditions using earth-abundant oxygen (O2) is highly desirable but remains challenging due to the chemical inertness of CH4 and the low reactivity of O2. Here, the authors present an ultrasound-catalysis coupled strategy that enables highly eff…